Saturday, September 28, 2013

If you are like
most human beings, you may be stuck in one or more areas of your life or career
and want to change. Perhaps to lose weight, eat healthy, become a better
parent, or a better, more effective leader? In one word - a better you.Achieving your change
can be difficult, but not impossible. It is so often that initial first step
that is so hard to make. We think of a millions reasons not to take it and then
look back on a life filled with missed opportunities to grow, learn and become
a better person.It is critical
to know what truly motivates you to change. Keeping in your mind a concrete
reason will have a tremendous impact as you proceed with your efforts. Focus on
the reasons why you want to change.

Motivate
yourself daily because every day we make dozens of small choices that determine
whether we will succeed. Like everything in life, you will need to commit to
it, work hard and be consistent.

It is easier to
stay motivated and stick to your intention to change when you see your
progress. So, make a small change if that is what is possible. From that small
change and success you will gain confidence and you can build upon that to make
more and perhaps even bigger changes.

There is always
room for improvement. Learn from both your successes and your failures, and
then adjust. Eventually you will discover the right combination of tactics to
help you achieve your desired change. It isn’t too late for you to improve
something in your life that you really want to change. No matter what age you
are at.

When it comes to
our future success, there are two ways to look at life. We can feel powerless.
We believe life just happens to us. It is out of our hands, so we sit back,
play the role of the victim and react to everything. Or, we can feel powerful.
We believe our choices make a difference in what happens to us. We chose to act
rather than react to people and situations. Which one describes you?

Some things in
life we can change; some things we can't. Losing weight, eating healthy, trying
to become a better parent, are definitely goals that are within our reach. Make
an effort to become a better you.

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Last week I travelled
and worked away from home. This trip offered me an opportunity to meet and work
with some truly amazing people. For several days I enjoyed working with enthusiastic
people who are passionate about their work. Their positive attitude and their
enthusiasm for what they do was contagious and contributed towards successful completion
of the project my team was working on. Working away
from home made eating healthy challenging for me. Limited time, not knowing
where to buy healthy food, and eating between meetings prompted me to make
hasty, unhealthy food decisions.

While healthy
eating can be challenging when we are away from home, we can make efforts to
make it less unhealthy. Here is what I did.

My hotel
offered free breakfast, and the menu listed typical American breakfast food. I
asked for apples and tomatoes, and they brought fruits and veggies that I
requested. That helped me add some healthy elements to my breakfasts there. Another
positive example was that the day after I asked at the front desk, where I
could buy apples (my favorite snacks), free apples appeared on the table near
the front desk.

Healthy food
options were very limited in the area where I was during lunch and dinner times
as well, and my choices were not perfect. I ended up with buying food for lunch
in three different locations and creating my own menus.

I was not the
only one in my group that experienced the lack of healthy food choices
challenge. One of my coworkers had to come back to the hotel and take some
medicine to recover from stomach pain caused by unhealthy food she ate.

On the
positive note I was happy that there were plenty of places that offered my
favored coffee. I was in Seattle.

Monday, September 2, 2013

Hunger is the biggest pothole on the road of successful
weight loss. The importance of no hunger in your weight loss strategy cannot be
overstated. Allowing yourself to get to the point of feeling hungry will not
help you lose weight. It is hard not to eat when you get hungry. It goes
against human nature.

When you get hungry, you tend to want to eat more. The
feeling of an empty stomach is very difficult, if not impossible, to tolerate
and at some point you give in. Hunger is the most significant problem with
weight loss and a diet that results in hunger will never be successful.Snacking on healthy foods every few hours helps you avoid hunger and the associated overeating. Apples work perfectly for me.Diet programs that encourage you to eat smaller portions
of the same foods you have been eating, rather than shift your eating entirely
to a new regimen will not be successful, either. Reducing your portions to the
point that you feel hungry at the end of a meal will not work. It is hard to
force yourself to eat less.

But it's possible to choose what you eat. The answer to weight
loss challenge lies in shifting your attention to the types of food you should
be eating, rather than just counting calories or eating smaller portions of the
foods you have been eating.

I really think anyone can lose weight without feeling
hungry. You just have to eat the right foods. Automate your meal choices to create routines that make it easy to eat the right food.

I changed the types of food I ate
and I lost weight. It took a bit of focus in the beginning to do it, but after a
while, it became a natural way of eating.